Monday, 1st February 1915: Dan Lehon, Arthur Thurman And C. C. Tedder. Are Given Their Freedom After Long Trial., The Atlanta Constitution

JURY DEADLOCKED FOR NEARLY SIXTEEN HOURS

Verdict of "Not Guilty" brought in before Judge Ben Hill at the Courthouse at 1:50 O'Clock on Sunday Afternoon. PLEASED BY VERDICT JUDGE POWELL LAUDS PERSONNEL OF JURY Prosecution of Rev. C. B. Ragsdale and of R. L. Barber Will Be Vigorously Pushed During the March Term, Declares Solicitor Dorsey.

The Jury in the Case of Dan Lehon, Southern Manager for the Burns Detective Agency; C. C. Tedder, a former Burns Operative, and Attorney Arthur Thurman, charged with Subornation of Perjury in the C. C. barber and Rev. C. B. Ragsdale Affidavits, incident of the Frank Case, brought in a verdict of "not guilty" before Judge Ben Hill at the Courthouse Sunday afternoon at 1:50 o'clock. The verdict exonerates all three of the Defendants. This closes one of the most sensational Cases ever tried in Fulton County.

VERDICT READY.

After several days of trial, the Case went to the Jury Saturday night at 10 o'clock. After an hour, the Jury had reached no verdict, and they were ordered locked up in the Kimball House for the night by Judge Hill, with instructions that a verdict would be receivable after 9 o'clock Sunday morning. It was shortly after noon when the jury notified Judge Hill that they were ready to render their verdict. Present when the verdict was rendered were Dan Lehon, C. C. Tedder and Arthur Thurman, the Defendants; their Attorneys, Judge Arthur Powell, John Boykin and St. Claire Adams, the last named being of New Orleans; Solicitor General Hugh M. Dorsey and his Assistant, Mr. Stephens, and Detectives Starnes, Campbell and Isom. Mr. Tedder, speaking for the Defendants Sunday afternoon, declared that they are greatly gratified at the verdict, but that it was no more than they had expected. Judge Powell said that the verdict was absolutely fair and declared that it was highly gratifying to know that his clients had been "tried before a Jury which was universally conceded to be of the highest personnel of any Jury that has ever sat in Fulton County."

PROSECUTE RAGSDALE.

When asked for a statement concerning the acquittal of Dan S. Lehon, Carlton C. Tedder and Arthur Thurman, charged with Subornation of Perjury, Solicitor General Hugh M. Dorsey said that he had no comment to make. He added, however, that the Prosecution of Rev. C. B. Ragsdale and R. L. Barber for Perjury would be taken vigorously in March. The Prosecution of Lehon, Tedder and Thurman grew out of an Affidavit signed by Rev. C. B. Ragsdale to the effect that he had heard Jim Conley confess to another Negro that he, and not Frank, killed Mary Phagan in the National Pencil Factory. Later, when the Solicitor began an investigation, Ragsdale confessed that this Affidavit was false, and stated that he had been given $200 by representatives of the Burns Agency for signing it, and had been told that there was $10,000 in it for him, in the event it went through. Ragsdale's testimony was attacked by the Defense, witnesses being produced to show that the Minister was weak-minded, and that on the day he signed the Affidavit, that he was not mentally responsible.